Zhao Qingyu cut straight to the chase, her words hanging in the air alongside her cold stare, as if she were interrogating a criminal.
Shen An’s smile froze for a moment before he reined it in, adopting a serious expression of his own.
He was keenly aware that right here, right now, every word he said next would shape the future of his relationship with Zhao Qingyu.
Yet he felt not a shred of nervousness. He even had the leisure to silently tease her for her “impatience.”
She truly wasn’t as domineering and self-centered as she seemed.
Chen Nannan had been right. Compared to Xu Yijing, Zhao Qingyu’s outward toughness was just a mask for her inner vulnerability.
Her weakness was so obvious she couldn’t even hide it!
All he had to do was keep playing the role she wanted, and it wouldn’t be long before he dismantled her defenses.
What role did she want?
The question seemed to have many answers, but in his interactions with Zhao Qingyu, Shen An had already pinpointed the most accurate one.
Thoughts raced through his mind, as if an eternity had passed.
In reality, less than a second had elapsed.
All of Zhao Qingyu’s reactions were exactly as he had anticipated!
So he didn’t hesitate at all. He continued playing the part of the “clueless innocent”: “I’m still not sure what you mean, Senior Sister.”
“Does this have anything to do with Senior Sister Xu?”
In truth, Shen An wasn’t deceiving her.
Xu Yijing truly hadn’t given him any tasks.
Zhao Qingyu, of course, didn’t buy it.
She wouldn’t easily believe that Shen An and Xu Yijing had no connection whatsoever.
He caught the scornful chuckle in her cold snort.
Rising slowly, Zhao Qingyu mocked him as she walked to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a glass of red wine.
She took a light sip, swirling the tall-stemmed glass, and shot him a sidelong glance. “You live in the North District, right?”
“Yes.”
Shen An nodded.
“You live in Room 1301 of Building D, right?” Zhao Qingyu pressed on unhurriedly.
Since he was still feigning innocence, she would dismantle his facade point by point.
“Uh, yeah. How did you know that, Senior Sister?” Shen An asked softly.
“That doesn’t matter.”
Zhao Qingyu took another sip, letting out a faint sigh. “Xu Yijing also lives in Room 1301 of Building D. You two live together.”
“Right?”
She fixed him with a piercing stare.
Shen An’s expression shifted slightly. Under her gaze, he slowly lowered his head. “Yes…”
“Tsk~” Zhao Qingyu sneered. “Since you claim you don’t know anything, why don’t you start by explaining why you’re living with her.”
“And why you’re pretending in front of me like you don’t know her.”
“Oh, it’s not just pretending not to know her—you’re pretending to have a crush on her, too.”
Clutching her wine glass, Zhao Qingyu stepped closer to Shen An, one foot after the other. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what my relationship with Xu Yijing is.”
“Or maybe you do know, and you’ve been ordered by someone to get close to me.”
“So, what exactly do you want to know? What are you trying to get from me?”
Faced with Zhao Qingyu’s aggressive barrage of questions, Shen An merely sighed and fell silent.
“Oh? Cat got your tongue? I thought you’d at least put up a fight, make some excuses—like just now, acting all innocent. ‘Ah~ I don’t know what you’re asking, Senior Sister.’ Heh.”
“But your little scheme with her is so amateurish. Zero challenge.”
“I just had someone look into it, and I know everything about you two.”
“I was even planning to play along for a bit, since I was feeling a little bored.”
Seeing Shen An’s silence fueled the disgust surging in Zhao Qingyu’s heart.
She severed her last sliver of expectation for him, turning away with a cold face and settling languidly back onto the sofa. “Now do you know what I’m asking?”
“Confess honestly. For all the things you’ve done for me lately, I can let you off once.”
“At least, I’ll let you stay in this school and safely finish your college days.”
Shen An was silent for a long moment before he spoke his first words: “I never imagined… that this was the image you had of me, Senior Sister.”
“I never imagined… that you’d secretly investigate… me…”
His voice trembled, laced with disbelief and an indescribable disappointment.
“Ha~” Zhao Qingyu couldn’t help but burst into harsh laughter, a harsh mockery. “Oh my, still planning to keep up the act?”
“Enough.”
She quelled her smile, staring at him expressionlessly, devoid of any emotion. “I’ll say it one last time: confess honestly.”
Shen An slowly raised his head to meet her gaze. “I admit, I hid some things.”
“I do live with Senior Sister Xu, and we’ve known each other from the start.”
“But I really don’t understand what you mean by ‘scheming.'”
“I… I only ended up living with Senior Sister Xu because of some circumstances I couldn’t avoid. Reasons I don’t like to talk about.”
“That’s why I chose to keep it hidden.”
Zhao Qingyu watched him with keen interest and nodded. “Mm-hmm, go on~”
“My… my family situation isn’t great. Coming here to study… it’s a big burden on them.”
“And my mother—or rather, my foster mother—happens to know Senior Sister Xu’s mother.”
“So, with my foster mother’s help as a go-between, I… no, they did it without telling me and signed an agreement.”
“The agreement stated that… I’d act as Senior Sister Xu’s nanny, live with her, and take care of her daily needs.”
Shen An gave a concise rundown of the backstory.
Zhao Qingyu arched a brow, her mocking smile unrelenting. “A nanny, huh? Keep spinning your tale~”
She knew Xu Yijing inside and out. With that woman’s personality, how could she ever accept a so-called nanny?
A male nanny, no less.
The very thought was laughable.
Zhao Qingyu sighed lightly, remarking, “Your storytelling skills are a far cry from your acting.”
At her words, Shen An quietly pulled out his phone and opened a document.
“If you don’t believe me, Senior Sister, you can look for yourself.”
“I’m not lying to you.”
Zhao Qingyu narrowed her eyes and took the phone from his hand.
Her gaze flicked to the screen, and then her pupils contracted sharply.
She saw Zhao Li’s name.
And Zhao Li’s handwritten signature.
The entire document lacked signatures from Shen An or Xu Yijing. It was an agreement between Zhao Li and Shen An’s “foster mother.”
That signature. That familiar handwriting…
Zhao Qingyu knew it was Zhao Li’s personal signature.
How could this be…?
Shock and confusion flickered in Zhao Qingyu’s eyes. This development was nothing like what she’d expected.
At that moment, Shen An spoke up opportunely. “I met with Auntie Zhao once before school started.”
“She told me… that Senior Sister Xu’s health isn’t great, and asked me to take good care of her…”
“But after meeting Senior Sister Xu, I realized she seemed perfectly fine… I… I was a bit confused too.”
“I didn’t pry, though, because Senior Sister Xu didn’t seem able to refuse the agreement either. She made a new one with me: I don’t have to do any nanny duties. I’m just… her roommate?”
“I don’t have to do anything, I get paid every month, and I can’t interfere with Senior Sister Xu’s life. You know, live and let live…”
Shen An rubbed his forehead, murmuring softly, “I know it’s not ideal, but I didn’t have a better option.”
Zhao Qingyu set the phone down, her expression grave. “You say you’ve met Zhao Li?”
“Yes, once before school started.”
“She told you to take good care of Xu Yijing?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know why… She just said Senior Sister Xu’s health wasn’t good…”
Shen An played his bewilderment to perfection. Zhao Qingyu silently averted her gaze as a new suspicion stirred faintly in her heart.
Zhao Li…
Xu Yijing…
Heh.
After a moment’s thought, Zhao Qingyu’s lips curved into a faint smile. “This really caught me off guard. I never expected Zhao Li to choose you this time.”
Shen An’s eyes sharpened. He’d latched onto some crucial clues.
It seemed Zhao Qingyu knew why Zhao Li had picked him.
And what Zhao Li was really after.
“Senior Sister?”
Suppressing the thrill in his chest, Shen An asked softly, “Do… do you know the reason?”
Zhao Qingyu looked up at him. “I do.”
“Uh… could you…?”
“No.”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”
“But I can tell you one thing.”
“Xu Yijing isn’t as nice as you think. The agreement she made with you? It’s all part of her own scheme.”
“She’s using you. You know that?”
Whoa.
What a cryptic riddle-master.
Shen An shook his head. “I don’t know.”
He needed clearer clues.
Zhao Qingyu leaned back lazily on the sofa, her voice softening. “Maybe I was too vague.”
“Alright, let me spell it out.”
“This so-called male nanny job of yours? You’re not the first. Get it now?”
In those few words, Shen An’s mind raced with deductions.
Zhao Li had never been looking for a nanny at all.
She’d been looking for a psychologist!
The “illness” she mentioned for Xu Yijing was a mental one!
Shen An had accepted Zhao Li’s commission in the role of a psychologist, tasked with treating Xu Yijing’s psychological issues!
This so-called nanny position was merely a smokescreen to placate Xu Yijing and keep prying eyes at bay.
And that whole setup relied on Xu Yijing remaining completely in the dark!
But Zhao Qingyu clearly knew more about the inside story than he did.
Not the first…
He wasn’t the first person to take on Zhao Li’s commission.
Shen An was certain of that.
What about Xu Yijing, then?
From what Zhao Qingyu had implied, the “nannies” around Xu Yijing weren’t limited to just one.
Or more precisely, he was simply the latest in line!
So what had happened to the previous nannies?
Sudden clarity dawned on Shen An.
Xu Yijing knew.
She knew full well that he hadn’t come as some so-called nanny, yet she pretended to be oblivious.
She and Zhao Li shared a tacit understanding—this mother-daughter duo…
Were they playing Mafia now? It was all one big chain of suspicions!
“Figured it out?”
Zhao Qingyu watched him with a mischievous smile.
Shen An’s wandering thoughts snapped back into focus. He scratched his head and said, “Uh… I still don’t know.”
“But honestly, whether I know or not doesn’t really matter… I’m doing pretty well right now anyway.”
“Is that so…”
Zhao Qingyu hesitated, caught in two minds.
She knew about the “tacit understanding” between Zhao Li and Xu Yijing, but she wasn’t sure if Shen An was in on it.
Maybe this guy truly believed he was just there to play nanny…
If that was the case…
He wasn’t putting on an act.
He genuinely knew nothing—aside from living under the same roof as Xu Yijing, he was no different from anyone else.
For reasons he couldn’t quite pinpoint, between the possibilities of Shen An deliberately hiding his ignorance or truly being clueless, Zhao Qingyu swiftly latched onto the latter.
She even felt a faint sense of relief deep in her chest.
“If that’s true, then why didn’t you just come clean with me from the start?”
Zhao Qingyu pressed.
“Hey, Male Nanny? Come on.” Shen An shrugged. “Admitting that out loud is pretty embarrassing, don’t you think?”
“Besides, I got the sense you and Senior Sister Xu have some bad blood between you. If I’d spilled the beans, wouldn’t that just piss you off even more, Senior Sister?”
“Better safe than sorry, so I figured keeping quiet was the smart move.”
“But~”
Zhao Qingyu’s offensive had run its course.
Now it was his turn!
“I never imagined you’d see it that way, Senior Sister.”
Shen An’s expression clouded with disappointment. “So all that talk before—about valuing me, giving me a chance to grow—was just a bunch of lies to manipulate me?”
“You were only interested in getting back at Senior Sister Xu by using me.”
Zhao Qingyu froze.
She truly hadn’t anticipated this turn.
From the outset, she’d been convinced Shen An was a spy.
In her mind, she’d prepared only for unmasking his deceit, chewing him out, and shoving him right back to Xu Yijing.
But now…
He wasn’t a spy. He didn’t even realize Xu Yijing was using him.
He was just… dumb.
Dumb in a disarmingly innocent way.
Her attempted exposé had backfired spectacularly, painting her as the hypocrite instead. Xu Yijing might have been exploiting him, but wasn’t she—Zhao Qingyu—doing the exact same thing?
Seizing the moment, Shen An gave a wry, self-deprecating smile. “Senior Sister Xu warned me to watch out for you. Senior Sister Chen said the same thing—watch out for you.”
“Everyone I’ve met has told me to be careful around you.”
“In their eyes, you’re downright terrifying.”
“But I didn’t buy it. I figured the only way to judge someone is to interact with them myself, get to know them firsthand.”
“Sure, you’re willful and bossy, always doing whatever you want.”
“But I’ve never found you scary. You’re not the selfish monster they make you out to be.”
“I always thought you just have this habit of leading with your sharp edges, shielding the softer side—and you hurt people without even realizing it.”
“Now I see I was too naive.”
Shen An’s eyes brimmed with raw, unguarded disappointment. “You really are something else, Senior Sister.”
“I…”
Shen An’s counterattack left Zhao Qingyu reeling.
For once, she looked genuinely flustered and lost, rising to her feet with a stammer as she struggled for a rebuttal.
She’d never dreamed he’d actually held such expectations of her.
Never imagined that’s how he saw her.
Just… that habit of putting the sharp side forward to protect the soft…
Zhao Qingyu realized she’d made a grave mistake.
One that might prove fatal.
“Senior Sister, consider today’s dressing-down something I owed you. If the chance comes up, I’ll make it up to you someday.”
Shen An turned to leave. “As for the Art Troupe, I don’t think I can fit in. I’ll step down.”
Without a backward glance, he walked away, deepening Zhao Qingyu’s sense of disarray.
She stared at his retreating back, a tangle of emotions churning inside her.
So, she’d betrayed his trust?
After all this time, someone who saw her as just another person—and she’d driven him off…
I…
He…
